Welcome

In two centuries of American ornithology, The Birds of North America
(BNA) is only the fourth comprehensive reference covering the life
histories of North America’s breeding birds. Following in the footsteps
of Wilson, Audubon, and Bent, BNA provides a quantum leap in
information beyond what those historic figures were able to assemble.
The print version of BNA was completed in 2002 – 18 volumes, 18,000
pages -- a joint 10 year project of the American Ornithologists' Union, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology,
and the Academy of Natural Sciences.
Now as an online project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, BNA is
becoming a living resource. Account contents are updated frequently,
with contributions from researchers, citizen scientists, and designated
reviewers and editors. In addition, BNA Online contains image and video
galleries showing plumages, behaviors, habitat, nests and eggs, and
more. And most online BNA accounts now feature recordings of the songs
and calls of their species, recordings selected from the extensive
collection of Cornell's Macaulay Library
of Natural Sounds. Future work will enhance BNA’s audio and video
contributions, speed revisions via efforts coordinated online, and
provide a significant boost to the number of photos available to
subscribers. Stay tuned!

Recent BNA Updates

Update (February2015) New Fully Revised Species
Accounts--Eastern
Bluebird has been revised by Patricia Gowaty. This account's photo,video and audio galleries
were updated. Also this month, Common
Pauraque was revised by BNA staff. This account's photo,video and audio galleries
were updated. The account for Snail Kite
was revised by Brian Reichert, Christopher Cattau, and Robert Fletcher,
Jr. The photo,video,
and audio galleries
have all been updated.

Update (November 2014) New Fully Revised Species Accounts--Cedar Waxwing
has been revised by Mark Witmer. This account's photo,video and audio galleries
were updated. Also this month, Lesser Scaup
was revised by Michael Anteau, Jean-Michel DeVink, and David Koons.
This account's photo,video and audio galleries
were updated. The account for Brown
Thrasher was revised by BNA staff, and the photo,audio, and
video galleries
have all been updated. Northern
Pintail has been revised by David Haukos, Joseph Fleskes, Karla
Guyn, and Robert Clark. This account's photo,audio, and
video galleries
have all been updated.